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Created May 04, 2013 09:12PM PST • Edited May 04, 2013 09:12PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   The “Cotton Club” is one and and a half performances away from being a very good for great movie, but as they say “If my grandma had wheels, she’d have a trolley”. Well that’s not quite accurate but overall it is a very appealing, ambitious movie that is marred by a very over the top performance by James Remar as Dutch Schultz and some business that’s a little too “Godfathery”.Also Richard Gere stars off a little shakey but when he’s given less to do, he gets better. If that makes any sense. So maybe it’s Coppola’s fault for not knowing how to use his actors.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   This might seem like a contradiction to my overall review, but let me explain myself. James Remar is very over the top as Dutch Shultz, a major character. So much so he almost ruins the movie. But the rest of cast is quite marvelous. It’s a star studded cast that includes everybody from Gregory Hines to Bob Hoskins and even Fred Gwynne(Herman Munster) who not only plays a gangster type but is quite good.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    The production values are quite exquisite. The best part of the movie are the reproductions of the acts that the white only audience go to see. And the set designs and costumes are very good indeed.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

17. Sex Titillating 1.8

18. Violence Fierce 2.5

    Pretty tame for now but for a costume drama set in the Depression era and made in 1984, fairly violent. Especially the scene where Dutch Shultz murders a rival gangster over a buffet just after the two made peace.

19. Rudeness Polite 1.0

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0